Friday my daughter had the day off school. It wasn’t raining (a miracle in Oregon) so I decided to take her to the Tualatin Wildlife Refuge to see what we could see. She was pretty excited because she got a new camera for Christmas and has been dying to get it out and use it. (For all you photographers it’s just a little Samsung point and shoot, but it’s digital and pink so it’s the coolest thing ever to her)

We started our walk and saw a few ducks and geese in the first little patch of water. As we walked closer we saw there was a guy there with a spotting scope, binoculars, and a camera. He looked like he knew what he was doing so we struck up a conversation. He turned out to be really cool and ended up walking with us. He told us that he knew where a Western Screech Owl liked to roost and he would show us if it was there. How cool is that!

Around the next corner we came across this little guy. He’s a Kestrel according to the official looking guy. I love the colors on him!

The longest lens I have is a 70-200mm which wasn’t really long enough for this shot. Here is a crop so you can see a little better what he looks like.

We continued to walk and chat and a little while after we entered the forest part the official looking guy slows waaaay down. We dropped back a ways from him not wanting to spook whatever he was sneaking up on. He stops, turns around to us, and smiling motions us up to him. We get up there and he whispers “Right there” as he points out in front of him. I’m scanning all the trees in the distance and I don’t see anything. I look at him and kind of give him the confused look. He says again “Right there” and points. I look again and realize it really is “RIGHT THERE!” In the tree not 20 feet in front of us was the little screech owl. It was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I have seen owls flying at night and in the zoo, but I have never seen one sitting still out in the wild. We were both amazed.

But it got better….

The official looking guy pulls out his iPhone and plugs a little external speaker into it. He smiles at us and says “We’re going to play him a little song.” A minute or two later he says “Ok here we go, lets see if this wakes him up.” He starts playing screech owl calls on his iPhone. At first there was no response from our sleepy little friend, but after a minute he slowly opened one eye. Then it happened. He started calling back! After a minute or two another one started answering in the distance. Then another! We had three owls all calling back and forth to each other and the iPhone. I seriously could not stop smiling. It was truly something I’ll never forget. Standing in the woods with my daughter, watching an owl 20 feet away from us have a conversation with is buddies. Way too cool!

Here is a shot of him calling. See how his throat is all puffed out? You can hear what their call sounds like HERE as well as read more about them.

They are not the best photos. It was pretty dark in those woods so I had to shoot at high iso and slow shutter speed. That coupled with the 200mm lens meant blurry pics. You know what though, I don’t care. They are exactly what pictures are supposed to be – incredible moments frozen in time that you can go back to whenever you want. I will visit these pictures often over the years and remember how cool it was to see this little guy and hear him call to his friends.

I’ll leave you with one last pic I got on the way out. I’m a sucker for abstract stuff and thought this looked cool.

Joe likes snow. Joe likes snow so much he wanted his wedding to be in the snow! Melissa wasn’t having it.  The compromise was to have engagement photos done in the snow and the wedding in warmer climates. Not a bad deal So last week Joe and Melissa called me to book an engagement session on Mt. Hood. They asked if I would be willing and I said sure! We met up at the beautiful Timberline Lodge on an absolutely stunning day. It was crystal clear and you could see forever up there. But the wind….oh the wind. I have no idea what the temp was, but with the windchill it was not pleasant. Joe and Melissa were troopers though and did their best to look comfortable and romantic even though they were frozen to the bone. We made little trips outside, shot as much as we could stand, then headed for warmth to thaw ourselves out.

We were kind of waiting and shooting slow to save ourselves for the awesome sunset that was expected. We all thought it was going to be absolutely incredible and didn’t want to miss it. Well, the good news is it was everything we hoped it would be. The bad news is it got colder and the wind picked up even more! It was literally so cold that it was unbearable. As beautiful as it was, we just couldn’t stand it long enough to do much. But we did tough it out for a few shots and I think they are worth it!

Joe and Melissa thanks for a great day and an amazing adventure. It was really cool to get to know you both and I had a ton of fun hanging out with you guys. I hope you both enjoy the photos and I’m glad Joe will have something to remind him of home while he’s away at Air Force boot camp.

Freezing!! But a cool silhouette!

Seriously, we were all so cold here it was insane! The wind was blowing so hard from behind them that poor Melissa’s hair didn’t stand a chance. The sky was absolutely gorgeous though so we toughed it out.

Joe being a dork. I like this about him. My kind of guy!

I’m working hard today on my new website (finally!) and in doing so I’m pouring through all of last years pics looking for portfolio images. I’m likely going to add a gallery of non-wedding images and start trying to branch my services out a bit. Although I’m still in love with doing weddings, and that will always be my priority,  I have been having fun doing the makeover sessions with JD too. The more I use lights, reflectors, etc. to shape light and create an image the way I want it to look, the more fun I’m having with it. I never thought I would be into the whole controlled lighting and posing thing so it’s really cool to have branched out and found that I really dig it.

After all, the more I have my camera in my hand the happier I am. This just gives me another avenue to play in, especially when wedding season is winding down.

These images are of Amber, a great friend of JD and I, and it’s likely a few will be in my portfolio soon. Amber is not a model. She had never done anything like this before. Having said that, she absolutely rocked it! She was trying different poses about as fast as I could click the shutter and she was an absolute blast to work with! She is very definitely a creative person and was not at all afraid to try something new, even if it didn’t work.

We traveled to 3 different locations and two of them are pictured here. My favorite location was the old tin buildings that I have had my eye on for a while. They worked out as well as I thought they would and I have even more ideas that I’d love to go back and try there. Amber’s  makeup and hair was perfect for that location and coupled with my processing I think we got some really great edgy images.

Thanks so much for your time Amber and I hope we can do it again sometime soon! I hope you enjoy the images!

Portland Model Photographer | CL Steele Photographer

Portland Model Photographer | CL Steele Photographer

This next image is probably my favorite of the entire day. I designed the processing I used on this series just for this image and it turned out exactly like I saw it in my head.

Portland Model Photographer | CL Steele Photographer

Here a few less edgy images to end the set with…

Portland Model Photographer | CL Steele Photographer

Portland Model Photographer | CL Steele Photographer

Portland Model Photographer | CL Steele Photographer

I would love to know what you think since this is something new for me.